outgrow
Americanverb (used with object)
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outgrows,
present (3rd person singular)
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outgrew,
past
-
outgrown,
past participle
-
outgrowing
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
outgrows,
present (3rd person singular)
-
outgrew,
past
-
outgrown,
past participle
-
outgrowing
present participle
verb
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to grow too large for (clothes, shoes, etc)
-
to lose (a habit, idea, reputation, etc) in the course of development or time
-
to grow larger or faster than
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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outgrowsimple
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outgrowssimple
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have outgrownperfect
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has outgrownperfect
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am outgrowingprogressive
-
are outgrowingprogressive
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is outgrowingprogressive
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have been outgrowingperfect progressive
-
has been outgrowingperfect progressive
Past
-
outgrewsimple
-
had outgrownperfect
-
was outgrowingprogressive
-
were outgrowingprogressive
-
had been outgrowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of outgrow
Explanation
To outgrow something is to become too big to fit in it, or to grow too mature for it. Most college students have outgrown their affection for stuffed animals. If they haven't, they might have a hard time making friends in the dorm. As you grow older and bigger, you outgrow all kinds of things: clothing, your childhood bed, your ice skates. You'll also outgrow many things in the sense of being too old for them to be appropriate or as appealing as they were when you were younger. Just about everyone outgrows their favorite picture books and cartoons eventually. The earliest meaning of outgrow was "surpass in growth" or "grow faster than."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
You can easily outgrow a robo adviser as your financial life gets more complex.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
At the same time, Noro sees the price rise as natto's chance to outgrow its reputation as "poverty food" deemed "unsellable if priced at more than 100 yen."
From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026
The bank is placed comfortably in terms of liquidity coverage ratio and loan-to-deposit ratio to outgrow India’s banking industry in the medium term, the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
This competition pushed early crops to develop traits that helped them outgrow and outcompete neighboring plants, offering new insight into how crops evolve and how they might be improved in the future.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 8, 2026
“Don’t you outgrow and move on to something better?”
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Her character arc implicitly concedes this when she outgrows some of her early ways in the third act.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
When he outgrows that, he said, they’ll remove the fake grass and put in something else — Margaret is thinking about an herb garden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2024
If the stalk outgrows the jar, move it to a larger one.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 10, 2023
"But whenever that innovation outgrows the footprint of the game, that's when I think we have a problem."
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2023
“Her stomping will be a lot more effective when she outgrows those slippers,” I say.
From "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead
While banks’ credit-card loans sharply outgrew nominal gross domestic product after the pandemic, their growth has more recently been trailing GDP, according to Fed data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
Originally called St Martin's Foodshare, the operation outgrew the church where it started, with volunteers also facing a huge increase in the amount of paperwork needed.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
OpenAI represents something that Musk has rarely had to contend with: a success story that outgrew him.
From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026
What we found is that for much of this century, the global balance sheet outgrew the underlying economy that supports it.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2025
His belly outgrew the coat sooner than that.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
By 2019, the event had outgrown the city's famous Gay Village.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Even so, some have already outgrown those computations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
The contribution limit of $5,000 annually makes this accessible as birthday and holiday gifts rather than traditional presents that get outgrown or spent.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
It helps that some industry players that made early aggressive leases have outgrown their spaces fast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
My old bed, shaped like a red race car, the one I’d outgrown ages ago, was in pieces.
From "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate
Aggressive expansions typically come with plenty of risk: an immediate strain on resources, profit instability, and possibly outgrowing the existing business model.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Yet the population was outgrowing its code, and housing demand soared.
From Barron's ● May 31, 2026
The pandemic had set in and his then-10 parrots were fast outgrowing their London house.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
Before too long, however, the herd multiplied, eventually outgrowing its range on Tomales Point.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2025
She had made it for Charlie because he, too, was outgrowing his clothes, and the old wool shirt their father had left behind hung on him like a nightdress.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
